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72 olds cutlass suspension

6K views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  ericnova72 
#1 ·
Hi I'm new to this forum. Anyway I will soon be looking to finally buy my first project car. I've been looking at a 1972 olds cutlass supreme. But before I pull the trigger on buying it I have been researching performance parts for this car and was wondering if any of you could suggest suspension upgrades that don't cost an arm and a leg. I will only have about $3,000 to put into the suspension right now any help would be appreciated.
 
#2 ·
Did you really mean $3K? That's a generous budget. Does that include wheels and tires? Bigger brakes?

The Cutlass chassis and suspension are the same as a Chevelle. The biggest improvements you can make are taller spindles to change the camber curve and increased caster (which may require aftermarket upper control arms. Get a quick ratio steering box. Upgrade to boxed lower control arms in the rear and larger front and rear anti-sway bars. The A-body cars are understeering pigs from the factory and the best-handling versions use a larger rear bar than front bar to correct this. Herb Adams used to sell a 1.5" rear bar and run that with a 1.375" front bar. You can still find these used.

Also, if you plan to use polyurethane bushings in the rear, do not put them in both ends of the upper rear control arms. The four link rear suspension requires some compliance in twist in the upper arms. The stock rubber bushings are soft enough to allow this without binding. If you run poly bushings, get the upper arms with a metal ball joint in place of the front bushing to avoid the binding.
 
#4 ·
An older pic of our BB El Camino we've had since the mid-'80s, this has the same GM suspension as your '72 Cutlass:



Suspension was done in the low-budget style you are interested in, and similar to what Joe Padavano outlines above. There was a little cutting and welding. It worked great, beyond what I would have expected, and does drive like a newer, smaller car than what it is. My family had a '72 350 Chevelle new, which was a lurching bouncing understeering pig...this car is nothing like that.

Front spindles are the taller GM style, from a '70s Cadillac Seville w/ 12" 4-wheel disc option and 1LE Camaro rotors. The a-arms were modified to accept these and increase the caster to 6 degrees, catalog parts are available for this if you don't do fabrication. Springs and front swaybar are original SS-396 stuff, and bushings are urethane. Very important to all this working well for cheap was bigger shocks (not more expensive ones), from a '70s Dodge half-ton truck, the a-arm holes had to be ground out a little bit. Steering box is '80s Cutlass, which is not the total hot ticket but faster than stock.

The rear swaybar is also GM, because it acts directly on control arm angles and not from partway up, the rr is normally smaller than the front (proof you have it right comes when the handling is about neutral). Springs are again stock, with stiffer shocks. Control arms are boxed upper and lower per original SS, as mentioned above while this makes them stiffer it also defeats their ability to twist so compliant bushing must be used (and on this car the urethane/rubber bushing combination works fine for normal driving but wants to hop at the drag strip and needs something different if used that way). 12" rear discs are from the same Cadillac as the front, requiring a spacer ring, slotting the wheel stud holes and shimming the diff c-clips to reduce side-to-side play.

Wheels are stock SS, modified from 14x7 to 15x8 (that used to be a big job but now you can buy them that way) and tires are 275-50R15s.

The frame is boxed per normal El Camino, has original SS rear control-arm bracing (an add-on) and an extra rectangle-tube crossmember there, and up front there is bracing from the front crossmember to under the firewall such as on '73-77 cars, and various other reinforcing to eliminate cracking such as normally happens with big-block cars.

Maybe this all cost $500...probably less...but of-course was some work. You could buy it all for under two grand now I imagine.

I used this with a mild 396 and a Richmond 5-speed manual, for probably 100K 'til the rod bearings wore out. What a great driver, it did everything well (albeit at 14 mpg but that wasn't the question here). It sits in the barn, waiting for a fresh motor, new paint and it's turn to come around again.
 
#5 ·
Thanks joe padavano and kso for the tips I love the 72 cutlass body style and unfortunately they are among the few remaining classic cars from that era that don't cost too much to buy. I don't have any fab or welding experience but I am comfortable turning wrenches I was a mechanic in the army for 5 1/2 years. Do you guys have any recommendations on parts suppliers I've checked out summit racing and opg but don't know any others
 
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